There’s a few reasons that is not going to happen, but now among them is Grizzlies owner Heisley telling the Commercial Appeal that he is not going to sell the team to someone who plans to move it. That starts with Ellison.

“We’re not even considering Ellison,” Heisley said. “This team cannot be moved.”

The Grizzlies lease with Memphis for the FedEx Forum has some financial penalties if a team pulls up stakes, plus it leaves the owner open to painful and likely successful litigation if he (or she) tried to move the team before 2021.

Heisley is willing to sell the team, with a reported asking price of $350 million.

Heisley acknowledged that there is one other person looking at the prospect of buying the team, but he expressed skepticism.

“I don’t know if he’s serious,” said Heisley, a 75-year-old, Chicago-based billionaire. “I think I’ll own the team for a while.”

Now, if I were an owner trying to spur more local corporate sponsorship and ticket sales I would need to put a winner out on the court — the Grizzlies are considered one of the better young teams in the game — then I would threaten a sale or move of the team. To see if that would spark local action — which in Memphis it has.

I’m not saying 75-year-old Heisley has just threatened to sell the team only in hopes of driving up ticket sales. I’m just saying if one wanted to drive up ticket sales that would be one way. Decide for yourself what is going on.

Just standard NBA operating procedure. Heck, it worked great here in New Orleans it got us to purchase over 10k season tickets to watch a 13 win team just imagine what it can do for a winner. Again standard NBA operating procedure. Need to sell tickets just threaten to move and hold your fans hostages.

You obviously have no clue whatsoever of what happened in Seattle. The Sonics leaving had absolutely nothing to do with fans’ loyalty. Nothing. It had to everything to do with a greedy owner who demanded the city buy him a new stadium while he kept all of the profits from that stadium. He got Stern behind him to try and sell it to the city that Key Arena couldn’t support an NBA team which is utter BS as they’d recently rebuilt the key to NBA standards. And they threatened the city to build them a new stadium or they’ll sell the team. It was all about a greedy, inept owner, Howard Schultz, and a corrupt, snake of a commissioner, David Stern and his boyfriend Clay Bennett. To try and say it was because of the fans not being loyal is utter stupidity. The fans had no say in any of that train wreck whatsoever.

Grizzlies, Raptors, Timberwolves, and Hornets….. Did they try to find least creative guy in america to name those franchises? the only things those names remind me of is little league baseball… Those fans need to boycott those god awful names…..